Public interest or ratings?

[peasea]

The rights of victims in this country are absoulte bullshit, Nothing is geared towards the victim, Its all for the offender.

This shit is fucking sick, She has suffered enough, But to have every ounce of anything she has ever done wrong brought up in court for the whole country to see!, This is such a clear cut case why are they bringing anything up about her!!

This guy doesnt deserve a bullet, thats way to easy for him. I wont go into what he deserves Itl probably incriminate myself

Quite right; I can't understand how he's STILL managing to 'put the knife in' long after her death. Didn't he stab her enough already? I also feel for her mother. She witnessed her daughter's violent death and now has to endure a media circus while the perp' laughs about it in the box.

Every time something like this goes down and members of the public air their feelings of disgust and frustration (at the system's inadequacies) while calling for harsher penalties, such venting is described as a 'knee-jerk reaction'. Weatherston should get solitary life at best. He's holding court and he's getting way too much air/press time. I would like to see his face after someone put over 200 stab wounds in his body; that'd wipe the smarmy smile off his dial. It's almost worth committing a serious crime to get locked up in the same jail with him.....just for a quiet chat, you understand.

[Genestho]

The rights of victims in this country are absoulte bullshit, Nothing is geared towards the victim, Its all for the offender.

This shit is fucking sick, She has suffered enough, But to have every ounce of anything she has ever done wrong brought up in court for the whole country to see

That's right.
Heaven forbid if victims stand up and try to explain their individual cases, and why there are minimal victims rights.

They are referred to as having 'axes to grind', or the 'pitchfork brigade'.

Unrealistically labelled....or offenders rights groups saying it is unfair on offenders that victims are 'paraded or exposayed', when they CHOOSE the long hard road to lobby for victims rights!
Victims have a one page brochure on rights, offenders? A stack.

As for this case, I'm quite aware of it, let's blame the dead woman.
Let's drag her diary out, let's talk about her sex life, it all jusitfies being chopped to death. Her poor mother.

[Winston001]

Quite right; I can't understand how he's STILL managing to 'put the knife in' long after her death. Didn't he stab her enough already?

I also feel for her mother. She witnessed her daughter's violent death and now has to endure a media circus while the perp' laughs about it in the box.

I agree. The trial feeds Weatherston's grandiosity, he revels in the attention, and gets to relive the power he felt when murdering this poor girl. On top of that he also gets to show off how clever he is by debating with the prosecutor.

In hindsight the judge should have suppressed some of the evidence - but what? And the media would have rushed off the the Court of Appeal to get that overturned.....

I'm appalled this young womans family have to witness this. Its like having her murdered again daily.

[Pussy]

That's right.
Heaven forbid if victims stand up and try to explain their individual cases, and why there are minimal victims rights.

They are referred to as having 'axes to grind', or the 'pitchfork brigade'.

Unrealistically labelled....or offenders rights groups saying it is unfair on offenders that victims are 'paraded or exposayed', when they CHOOSE the long hard road to lobby for victims rights!
Victims have a one page brochure on rights, offenders? A stack.

As for this case, I'm quite aware of it, let's blame the dead woman.
Let's drag her diary out, let's talk about her sex life, it all jusitfies being chopped to death. Her poor mother.

I agree. The trial feeds Weatherston's grandiosity, he revels in the attention, and gets to relive the power he felt when murdering this poor girl. On top of that he also gets to show off how clever he is by debating with the prosecutor.

In hindsight the judge should have suppressed some of the evidence - but what? And the media would have rushed off the the Court of Appeal to get that overturned.....

I'm appalled this young womans family have to witness this. Its like having her murdered again daily.

Spot on... both of you!

[Spyke]

I agree that the news doesn't represent what we really want to see, they've just lost sight of what they should be reporting. how about more storys on the good sorts which is the only part of the news i take seriously (last item on a sunday). If you haven't seen it they report about a person that has done something good for the community or such alike.

they could be reporting more about things that are going to help us in life and living in general, instead of so many things that don't show whats actually happening in nz. do some real reporting and keep us in the loop of life not death.

[Winston001]

I don't go along with the "if you don't like it, turn it off" argument. Most of the news whether on TV, radio, or newspaper is benign and informative. Ok - TV is shallow but it is also true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why should I have to turn off the 6:00pm news and miss items of interest, simply because they might show salacious material? That's what editors are for - to judge what should be shown.

Incidentally last night TV1 News apologised for airing the clip of the foul language in the trial. Must have had complaints.

[Genestho]

I agree. The trial feeds Weatherston's grandiosity, he revels in the attention, and gets to relive the power he felt when murdering this poor girl. On top of that he also gets to show off how clever he is by debating with the prosecutor.

In hindsight the judge should have suppressed some of the evidence - but what? And the media would have rushed off the the Court of Appeal to get that overturned.....

Z'actly. ^

I turned on the news last night because of this thread, and noted the apology in regards to the swearing too! Openly admitting the editing processes weren't adequately applied!

[peasea]

I don't go along with the "if you don't like it, turn it off" argument. Most of the news whether on TV, radio, or newspaper is benign and informative. Ok - TV is shallow but it is also true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why should I have to turn off the 6:00pm news and miss items of interest, simply because they might show salacious material? That's what editors are for - to judge what should be shown.

Incidentally last night TV1 News apologised for airing the clip of the foul language in the trial. Must have had complaints.

You make a couple of valid points. The picture I have in my head of Withered-dick chuckling to himself in the box will remain with me for some time.

The people who let dubious 'news' articles appear at dinner time (for many) need to sharpen their act. 6pm news does, I think, need to be sanitized a bit with perhaps an adult, coarser version at 9.30 or 10. The 10.30 bulletins are a bit late for me generally.

Kids see/hear enough these days without having foul language, blood stained knives and details of how many stab wounds a pretty young woman received in her bedroom thrown at them at dinner time.

TV: "There was a frenzied attack"

Mum and Dad: C'mon, eat your veges.

TV: "There was blood everywhere"

Mum and dad: You won't get any pudding.

TV: "He took a knife into her bedroom"

Mum and dad: I'll tuck you in, get a good night's sleep sweety.

No wonder some kids spin out.

[Genestho]

I agree Peasea.

And by the time this same kid is 14, I wonder what the chances of the following scenario happening after years of desensitising.

Kid1: Dude you just stabbed/shot/ranover ___________< (add your family member of choice.)

Kid2

Also we give the offender much wanted attention, a certification in publicity - and kudos - as in this case. Should we be feeding this blokes ego? It seems alot of people are asking this question too.

[Pussy]

Should we be feeding this blokes ego? It seems alot of people are asking this question too.

Yes... we should be feeding Weatherston's ego....


with cyanide

[Number One]

The picture I have in my head of Withered-dick chuckling to himself in the box will remain with me for some time.

Me too - that made me sick to my stomach and I wanted to jump through the tele and smash him

[peasea]

Me too - that made me sick to my stomach and I wanted to jump through the tele and smash him

Keep an eye on Grab-a-Seat, I'll come with ya and we can.....

Oh no, hang on, it's not his fault, remember?

Now, where are those wet bus tickets?

[James Deuce]

You make a couple of valid points. The picture I have in my head of Withered-dick chuckling to himself in the box will remain with me for some time.

The people who let dubious 'news' articles appear at dinner time (for many) need to sharpen their act. 6pm news does, I think, need to be sanitized a bit with perhaps an adult, coarser version at 9.30 or 10. The 10.30 bulletins are a bit late for me generally.

Kids see/hear enough these days without having foul language, blood stained knives and details of how many stab wounds a pretty young woman received in her bedroom thrown at them at dinner time.

TV: "There was a frenzied attack"

Mum and Dad: C'mon, eat your veges.

TV: "There was blood everywhere"

Mum and dad: You won't get any pudding.

TV: "He took a knife into her bedroom"

Mum and dad: I'll tuck you in, get a good night's sleep sweety.

No wonder some kids spin out.

While I appreciate the sentiment, it isn't our job to prevent our kids ever finding out how the world works. That's how you end up with a Weatherston.

There's multiple lessons in everything that's wrong with society in this case and I'd much rather have an informed discussion about right and wrong and how little of the information that is presented on television can be trusted to be actual untainted information than to quickly rush them out of the room or change the channel. Having said that we don't watch the News anyway. There's no canned laughter so we don't know when we're supposed to be laughing.

Life sucks and you need to be taught how to deal with the sucky bits and you need people to support you in the sucky bits. Far too many people have an unrealistic expectation of life and far too many people liken support to a patronising pat on the head.

[Ms Piggy]

I don't go along with the "if you don't like it, turn it off" argument. Most of the news whether on TV, radio, or newspaper is benign and informative. Ok - TV is shallow but it is also true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why should I have to turn off the 6:00pm news and miss items of interest, simply because they might show salacious material? That's what editors are for - to judge what should be shown.

Incidentally last night TV1 News apologised for airing the clip of the foul language in the trial. Must have had complaints.

That's exactly my thoughts! Good to hear that TV1 apologised. I'm still waiting for a reply from TV3 News..........

[Ms Piggy]

While I appreciate the sentiment, it isn't our job to prevent our kids ever finding out how the world works.

While I'm not advocating wrapping kids in cotton wool and hiding them away from the real world I just don't see that it's necessary to publish as much *detail* regarding injuries etc. on the 6pm news when it is more likely that children will be overexposed to gruesome & graphic pictures and words.

That's how you end up with a Weatherston.

How do you mean Jim? I'm not making a dig btw, I'm interested in why you say this.